“IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU.”
When Shane Bitney Crone posted a YouTube video with that title on May 6, 2012 — a year after the death of his partner, Tom Bridegroom — he couldn’t have predicted its impact.
Crone’s shock at both his sudden loss, and later being ostracized by his partner’s family, are focal points of the heartbreaking movie “Bridegroom” — the audience award winner for best documentary at the 2013 TriBeCa Film Festival — that will make its television premiere at 10 p.m. Sunday on OWN.
“Bridegroom” chronicles the couple — each raised in small midwestern towns — after they met in Los Angeles, where they bonded over a mutual appreciation for Garth Brooks songs and world travel.
But their six-year relationship — supported by Crone’s family, but scorned by Bridegroom’s conservative Christian parents — ended on May 7, 2011, when Bridegroom, 29, was killed in an accidental fall from an LA rooftop.
Days later, Crone was threatened with bodily harm if he tried to attend his partner’s hometown funeral in Knox, Indiana.
Crone posted several emotional YouTube videos that garnered millions of views and stirred something in filmmaker Linda Bloodworth- Thomason, creator of the 1986-93 CBS comedy “Designing Women,” who had met the couple at a mutual friend’s wedding.
Crone let her pore over many hours of the couple’s home videos; she also interviewed his family and friends.
No one in Bridegroom’s family would participate.
For Bloodworth-Thomason, known for tackling social issues on “Designing Women,” the project hit home. Her mother died in 1986 after she was diagnosed with AIDS following a blood transfusion; Bloodworth-Thomason was shocked by what she experienced at the hospital. “I saw probably a dozen young men die, alone, after families had abandoned them,” she tells The Post. “It was a stunning revelation to see gay people treated that way.”
Crone welcomed Bloodworth-Thomason’s perspective. “This wasn’t just some Hollywood director looking to make a movie; she was known for standing up for what she believes in and using her platform to create change,” the soft-spoken Crone said recently from his LA home. “She was the perfect person to tell the story.”
Bloodworth-Thomason was also driven by commenters on Crone’s YouTube channel, including an Arkansas man who described himself as “a gun-toting redneck” and said he cried while watching — and subsequently evolved to support gay rights.
“I said, ‘Shane, this is so powerful,’” says Bloodworth-Thomason. “That should be our goal; these are the people we want to reach.”
Crone, 27, also sees the impact in the gay community.
“I’ve heard from teenagers who said the story gave them hope and even prevented them from taking their own life,” he says. “I never thought sharing my story or just using my voice would affect people the way that it is. No matter who you are, you have a voice and should use it because you might help people in ways that you never could’ve imagined.”
The emotional project guides Crone, too. “It’s not always easy revisiting the most difficult times of my life,” he says. “I try to remember that it is helping Tom’s memory live on. That keeps me going.”
At 9 p.m., before “Bridegroom,” OWN will also premiere an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” that examines gay issues, with guests comedienne Wanda Sykes, Jesse Tyler Ferguson of “Modern Family” and Dan Bucatinsky of “Scandal.” In addition, the network will rebroadcast a series of other gay-themed “Next Chapter” programs starting at 4:30 p.m.